Automobile bttmpeb



w. E. WILLIAMS.

AUTOMOBILE BUMPER.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 3. I921.

Patented Sept. 5, 1922.

I :Illlllll Patented Sept. 5, 1922.

UNITED STATES WILLIAM ERASTUS WILLIAMS, OF WILMETTE, ILLINOIS.

AUTOMOBILE BUMPER. i

I T all whom it may concern Be it. known that I, WILLIAM ERASTUS WILLIAMS, a citizen of the United States, a resident of the village of Wilmette, county of Cook, and State of Illinois, have invented a newand useful Improvement in Automobile Bumpers, of which the following is a specification.

My bumper relates to that class of devices which are put upon the front and oftentimes the rear of automobiles to avoid injury by collision, and the object of the'invention is i to provide a very cheap, eiiicient bumper that may be adjusted toa wide range of cars without'special fittings.

Reference will be. had to the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is a front elevation of the bumper.

Figure 2 is a top plan view Figure 3 is a section on the line. 3'3, Fig. 1 of the bumper as applied to the front end of a car or automobile.

Fi ure 4 is a view analogous to,Fig. 3, showing a slight modification.

Figure 5 is a section .on line .55 of Figure 4. I v

Figure 6 is a section on line 66 of Figure 1.

Figure 7 is a transverse sectional view of the bumper beams showing almodification which involves the absence of a middle rod for the bumper beam members.

In the drawing 1 indicates the front ends of the members of the automobile or car frame, and 2 a shackle bolt as ordinarily used in connection with automobile frames and spring connections. Automobile bumpers heretofore have been made in various ways involving the bumper beam in a .variety of shapes and forms, but the preponderance of practice has been to make a single beam in various forms of cross section, round, square flat, and with various modifications of the arrangement of those bars. I I r I prefer to make my bumper, or the part of the bumper that is actually involved in collision, out of a round rod, shown in the drawings as solid, but tubular rods may be used instead. I prefer the solid rod because I may get a stronger beam with less diameter than with a tubular rod. This bumper beam I prefer to make in a loop having a topand bottom member, as indicated in the. drawi g; wh e n 3 i dicate th 9? Application filed October 8, 1921. Serial No. 504,841.

tom member of the loop and 4: the top member. I prefer to have this member in a continuous piece, although it may be in special pieces, or one piece with a cold shut end. I have shown the member made of one piece weldedor brazedtogether at the oint indicated by 5 at the right end of the loop, in Figures 1- and 2.

The bottom and top bars of the loop, 3 and 4, are separated from. each other a wider distance than has heretofore been the practice generally, in making this type of a bumper, the purpose being, to make the bumper wide enough to register surely in collision with other narrower bumpers and with parts of the car that may be first encountered in collision. bumper beam of relatively small rods the front view of the car is not obstructed and a light and airy appearance is obtained as By making the cated at 7, which are 'looped over the rods 3 and a and secured, by rivets 8,.infixed positions on the rods. I may, if I choose, make the middle one of these members 8 of considerable width or I length. longitudinally of the rods and fasten the license plate directly to this. Thus, if any particular car owner or manufacturer of cars desires to have a massive front appearance for the bumper, he may make this middle plate of considerable. width or length along the bar and secure any mass effect that he may desire, orhe may otherwise connect the top and bottom rods. The bumper beam composed of a loop as indicated by the rods 3 and 4 may be supplemented by an additional member indicated by 9.

This rod 9 normally would extend across only from the outside members 7 as indicated in Figure l. The bumper rods or composite beam as describediis supported by upper spring members 10 and lower spring members 11, which are secured by clips 12 to the bumper reds. These curved spring members are made out of flat ieces of spring steel and are provided with a series of short bends indicated by 13 to provide a series of seats 14 directly in contact with the car frame. The purpose of the bends 13 is to allow clearance between the seats 14 so that the said seats 14 may rest in stable contact with the curved surface of the ordinary automobile frame member. Holes are provided in the seats 14 for bolts 15 to pass throiwh the spring members and the flanges 16 of the frame.

The fastening for the lower spring member 10 is shown as being made by clip bolts 17 which embrace the frame member instead of the bolts 15 as described. However, either system of fastening to the frame may be used for holding the members. 7 i l There is a wide range in shape of the frame ends of the automobiles 01 cars as the are called, varying in the degree ofcurvature of the surface 18. It is desirable that the automobile bumper should be supported at about a regular normal height for all the cars and hence some means of securing the bumper to the different types of cars nus t be provided to permit this adjustment with out too many special fittings. By the ai rangement of the two spring members 1O and 11 as shown, each specially connected to the frame of the car, and with their seatsl las described, may be adjusted upward and downward along the curve 18, thus bringing the bumper'bars 3 and 4 into the desired position of height fromv the roadway on a wide range of different shaped ends frames. This adjustment will readilylum derstood when it is considered that the fastening of the separate members at the seats 14 may go up and down the inclined surfaceboth being carried up together, or one up and one down, as may he required to bring the parts 3. and l to the positions desired. h With many cars the rear end of the frame isslmilar to the front end of the frame and thus the adjustment just described and shown in Figure 3 may be'applied the rear end of the car without change.

With some cars, however, it is necessarv to add an ex'tension', at the end of the frame ofthe car, to provide for the mounting of the bumper at the rear, and I have provided for this as shown by the'modifiedfraines of Figures 4 and 5, wherein l9 in dica tes the longitudinal frame member of a car and a channel extension beam that mav be. secured by bolts 21 to the frame meiiibers 19. To this channel member 20 I secure by bolts 22 the spring members- 23 which support the rods 3 and 4 that form the bumper beam as previously described. i

The spring members 23 are both alike in Figure fl, as this construction ,does not require's'uch an adjustment as is required on the curved end'frame'men'lbers' of" Figure 8,

since any adjustment of elevation that will be made for the rear bumper, will be taken care of by the channel extension member 20. With certain types of cars this channel extension construction of Figure 4, may be required for the front end of the car as well as for the rear. Y

With some types of cars Ifind it desirable to so shape the curved spring members 10 and 11 that their ends are superposed where they fasten to the frame thus saving one. set of clip bolts in fastening both spring members to the frame. This type of a bumper last described will be used chiefly on what may be termed factory production orders, rather than accessory orders as commonly understood in the business.

The bumper business to-day is largely on what is termed an accessory business and the supply dealer carries in stock bumpers to be applied to various different cars that may come along and it is desirable. that the dealer carry as few parts as possible to meet the widest demand in various makes of cars that can be taken care of with the same construction, and the forms shown in Figures 3 and 4, permit the accessory dealer to carry a small number of special parts and yet get a better bumper connection, adapted to a wider range of cars than any system of which I am aware for fastening the bumper to the car framef r The use of round rods connected across by vertical members as 'I have shown and described, gives a bumper having a wide contactface and yetis light in weight, easily cleaned, and permits clearance through 'the bumper for inspection and access to the car behind it, which is a desideratum.

. \Vhat I claim is 1. In abumper of the class described, the

combination with a bumper body in the form of an elongated loopyof spaced connections betwee'n'the upper and lower sides of the loop and flat spring members each. fixed at one end to said loopand'having its opposite end provided with short spaced seat portions, to rest upon a machine frame member, connected by outwardly curved portions, to spring and allow the seats to "fit, closely, curved portions of an automobile frame.

2. The combination with a bumper beam having upper and lower horizontal members, of rigid vertical members'connecting said horizontal members at intervals, and pairs of "flat leaf spring membersadapt'ed for connecting the beam to an automobile frame,

one spring of each pair curving downwardly and the other, curving" upwardly from said beam.

3.1 A bumper beam consisting principally of parallel round rods in a vertical plane, aldaptcdfto, extend from side to side of a vehicle, and beams supporting spring members embracing and revolubly adjustable about the upper and lower rods, respectively, and adapted to be secured to the frame of a vehicle.

4. The combination with a bumper body consisting principally of spaced round parallel rods normally in a vertical plane and connected by crossbars, of sets of spring body-supporting members, the sets being revolubly adjustable about different rods, respectively, and adapted to connect said body with a vehicle frame.

5. The combination with a horizontal bumper beam, of two pairs of beam-supporting spring members near the beams ends, respectively, and adapted to seat accurately at any of various points of adjustment along the vertically curved surfaces of ordinary automobile frame members, and means for independently fixing the two spring members to the frame members.

6. In a bumper of the class described, the combination with a bumper beam having a plurality of constituent bars, of beamssupporting spring members curved upwardly from their junction with the beam, and beam-supporting members curved downwardly from the connection with the beam, each of said members being adapted and arranged for independent attachment to an automobile frame.

7. The combination with a bumper beam terminating, when. in use, in free ends at some distance beyond the sides of an automobile frame, of pairs of oppositely and vertically curved flat springs, the pairs supporting the end portions respectively, of the beam, and each spring being adapted and arranged for independent attachment to an automobile frame.

8. The combination with a bumper, of spring members for supporting the bumper from the curved portions of an automobile frame, each of said members having distinct seats for fitting different portions of a curved car frame surface itself at a distance from the seats of other members.

9. The combination with a bumper beam body having as parallel upper and lower members round rods of uniform diameter, of resilient members adjustably clamped to said rods at points corresponding to the width of the vehicle frame to which they are to be attached.

10. In an automobile bumper, the combination with an elongated loop having U- shaped ends and provided with a middle member mounted between the sides of the loop, of transverse vertical members connecting said sides and member, and suitable means for fastening the said bars to the frame of the car.

11. In an automobile bumper, the combination with a top horizontal member and a bottom horizontal member connected across by vertical members, of spring supporting members connected to the top horizontal member of the beam, spring supporting members connected to the bottom horizontal member or the beam, and means for suitably fastening the said spring supporting members to the frame of the car,

12. In an automobile bumper, the combination with a bumper beam composed of a plurality of round rods extending hori-' zontally across the front of the car and transverse vertical members connecting the said round rods, of supporting means in spring form for holding the said rods in position on the frame of the car.

13. In a device of the class described, a bumper beam composed of a top member and a bottom member extending horizontally across the car and spring supporting-members connected to the horizontal members by hinged connections which permit variation in the adjustment of the positions of the spring connecting members and horizontal members.

14. The combination with a bumper beam, of flat springs secured to and extending up- 9 wardly from the upper side of said beam, and flat springs secured to and extending downwardly from the lower side of said beam, the two sets of oppositely extending springs being bent toward each other at some distance from the beam and all adapted and arranged for independent attachment to the frame of an automobile.

15. The combination with a bumper beam, of resilient beam-supports arranged forangular vertical adjustment with respect to the beam and adapted for relative move ment along automobile frame members, and means for fixing the supports to such members after the proper adjustment of the beam has been secured.

Signed at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, this 30th day of September 1921.

WILLIAM ERASTUS WILLIAMS.

Witnesses:

B.. J. BERNHARD, F. M. ZOBEL. 

